JACKSON, MI – The making of craft beer is a popular and growing industry now, but it’s not necessarily a novel idea.

Deep in Jackson’s historic roots are the remnants of more than a dozen of these kinds of breweries, which crafted concoctions from their own recipes and sold them in wooden kegs to a multitude of saloons throughout the city.

One of them was Haehnle Brewing Company, a family business that settled high atop a hill on N. Cooper Street where the I-94 interchange is now. It was known for such products as Bock Beer, Double Export, Old Master, Old Hill-Top Ale, Select Stock and Fawn’s Milk, touted as “a grand elixir for old stags.”

“I’ve still got some of the recipes,” said James Haehnle, 70, of Jackson, a descendant of the brewery’s founder. “I’ve been approached by several people to do something with them, but I never did.”

Workers at Jackson's Haehnle Brewing Company raise a toast with Bock Beer, a dark German beer that was a signature of the brewery. (Courtesy photos | MLIve.com)

After a short stay there, he came west to Detroit and then eventually to Jackson where he started his brewery on Lansing Avenue near the Jackson County Fairgrounds. From there, he ventured to Marshall to open a similar brewery there.

Casper Sr. died at age 44 in 1869, and his 16-year-old son Casper Jr., who had just recently joined his father in America, took over. In 1870, he decided to focus on Jackson and relocated to what became known as “Haehnle Hill.”

Casper Jr., called “Cap,” spent $25,000 to build his C. Haehnle & Company brewery, according to the 1881 History of Jackson County. At that time, it employed six men and made about 500 barrels of beer per year.

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Business grew from a small operation to factory scale. And Cap came to be known as “a kind-hearted man, affable in manner and known widely as a friend of the working man.” His brewery was considered one of the most “prosperous industrial enterprises of the city.”

It was a daily occurrence in the late 1800s to see horse-drawn wagons stacked high with kegs of beer making deliveries to the city’s nearly 75 saloons. At its peak, Haehnle Brewing Company was turning out about 35,000 barrels of beer a year.

"They would stop at each saloon and sell them whole kegs, half kegs and quarter kegs," James Haehnle said. "That was the reason it was so good, because it was always fresh."

Disaster struck the Haehnles on Nov. 29, 1891 when a 2 a.m. fire was discovered by James C. Berger, a guest at their home near the brewery.

The Jackson Fire Department responded “as fast as was able,” reported the Jackson Weekly Citizen. But icy roads and the steep hill leading to the brewery hindered firefighters’ ability to reach the blaze.

This label from Haehnle Brewing Company was for a beer named for the brewery's location atop a hill on N. Cooper Street. (Courtesy photos | MLIve.com)

The brewery also was beyond reach of the city’s water supply. Minimal help came from an artificial pond from which winter ice was gathered for use in the summer to help keep beer cool.

By the time the fire was extinguished at about 9 a.m., the brewery was in ruins. It was valued from $50,000 to $60,000 and insured only for $20,000, the newspaper reported. Cap said he would rebuild.

“I have nothing else to do,” he told the newspaper. “My home is here, all my property is here and I shall go ahead again as soon as I can get things straightened out.”

Business continued to boom until Prohibition went into effect in January 1920 and halted the production of alcoholic beverages. Casper III changed the company’s name to Haehnle Products Co. and manufactured the allowed but unpopular beer with a half a percent of alcohol.

Casper III also expanded the brewery’s ice production and sold it through his City Consumers Ice Co. for use in home ice boxes.

Beer production started again in 1933 following the repeal of Prohibition, but the Haehnle Brewing Company never really rebounded from the setback. The factory closed in 1937 and the buildings were demolished when the government claimed the property under eminent domain for the highway project.

Tidbits

• Jackson's first breweries started about 1850. By 1912 there were 13, which purchased about 30,000 bushels of barley per year from Jackson County farmers. Included in the group were the Jackson Brewing & Malting Co., Purney & Co., Adler’s and Eberle Brewing Company.

• The Haehnle and Eberle companies grew to be the city’s most prominent. Eberle’s most popular brew was Blue Star, touted as “The Beer Without a Headache.” Eberle survived Prohibition by manufacturing soft drinks, including the popular “Delaware Punch.” The company closed in 1965.

• In 1901, Cap Haehnle expanded his company by purchasing Superior Brewery in Ironwood, where workers mining iron ore wanted fresh beer to drink. He renamed the company Ironwood Brewery.

• During Prohibition, Casper Haehnle III sold about 3,500 tons of “Haehnle’s Hygienic Ice,” per year. The ice was harvested and stored at Devil’s Lake. He also shipped hundreds of tons of ice annually to the U.S. Gulf Coast for use in the fishing industry.

• Casper III also founded the Windsor Wine Co. of Walkerville, Ont. during Prohibition. Later it became LaSalle Wine & Champagne Co. of Farmington.

• Casper III also was an avid hunter and owned land in the Mud Lake Marsh near Grass Lake. In 1955, he gave the Michigan Audubon Society 497 acres of his land to start the Phyllis Haehnle Memorial Sanctuary, which is named in honor of his only daughter and managed by the Jackson Audubon Society.